FORT WORTH, Texas – He Fort Worth Police Department says he is working to get more help to make his huge backlog of rape kit evidence manageable.

Last October, the The department was dealing with a backlog of nearly 900 sexual assault cases.

With the help of the Tarrant County Medical Examiner, the police department has been able to make progress.

“We’ve been able to reduce that number from 898 to 190, to 708,” explained Fort Worth Police Chief Neil Noakes.

The department is continuing an effort to urgently correct the problem that the chief says is due to staffing shortages at its crime lab that processes DNA samples from sexual assault victims after they are collected at a hospital.

Chief Noakes says he is optimistic the vacant positions will be filled soon.

“What really encourages us is that we have eight positions for forensic scientists. Five of them, we just closed the position. And we’re doing interviews right now. We had 39 applications from people,” the chief told FOX 4 on Wednesday. .

“I want to know if our delay, our failure in this, compromised the judicial path of any of these cases?” asked Fort Worth City HallWoman Gyna Bivens during Tuesday’s council meeting.

“Our understanding is no,” Noakes said. “And our conversations have been with the district attorney’s office.”

Following criticism from some council members regarding transparency, the chief answered questions about the backlog during an update at the city’s work session.

Noakes notes other steps underway include an agreement with the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office. It will handle testing of any new sexual assault kits that arrive as the department’s lab works to clear the backlog. He also explained a new department policy to keep victims informed.

“We are contacting every survivor who may be affected by this to let them know what is happening, and we are demanding an investigator’s notation in the case file to demonstrate that contact has been made,” he said. . saying. “We’re facing this head-on and we’re going to do it right.”

Fort Worth’s police oversight office will also monitor the department’s progress.